It is well-known in the art that during the course of the production of certain beverages, compounds are produced which detract from the flavour and quality of the beverage. This is a particular problem associated with the production of alcoholic beverages where compounds such as ethyl acetate, acetic acid, and acetaldehyde are detrimental to the flavour and aroma of the alcoholic beverage.
It is also known in the art that such undesirable compounds may be removed from solution by means of reverse osmosis. This process of reverse osmosis requires elevated pressures to achieve its effect, resulting in an increase in temperature. It is commonly known that certain volatile components in solution are adversely affected by an increase in temperature that leads to associated unfavourable development of derivatives of integral solutes in solution, or even more unfavourably the generation of contaminating compounds in solution. Reverse osmosis also only removes up to 15% of the volatile acidity from the wine in a single pass. If higher levels are to be removed using the reverse osmosis process, the wine has to then be passed 2-3 times which can lead to a further deterioration in the whole quality of the wine as well as excessive increases in temperature. To limit, insofar as possible, the effects of the reverse osmosis on the quality of the treated solution heat exchangers are utilised, which is costly and cumbersome.
Ultra-filtration is also known to remove unwanted compounds from a solution. However, this requires low pressure with concomitant detrimental effects to the solution insofar as desirable compounds also pass through into the permeate.